Operation Desert Storm
by WindStar
Summary: After a plane crash in the Sahara, both Kai and Tala are left stranded and injured with very little hope. Nightmares and fears about death and the world around them and just what it means to survive plague them. A story about finding the will to live.


**Windstar: **This story is very much an AU. It is set six years after the first world championship, and it takes place in the _On the Three _story line. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO READ _ON THE THREE _TO UNDERSTAND THIS. As much as I'd love to say go ahead and read it, this is just a story that was written because of various influences and I couldn't get it out of my head. The character of Anna, to the dismay of those who have read _On the Three_ is portrayed in a rather negative tone almost through this story and to people who like her, I'd have to apologize. I hadn't planned on writing something sequelish until OTT was finished, but this fit in and it's understandable to the general public.

I hope you all enjoy!

_**Chapter: Operation Desert Storm**  
_

_Drink it_. He turned his head away, his breath coming in short gasps as he tried to breathe. He was vagely aware of someone holding the back of his head. He hissed, trying to feel oxygen in his lungs, but he couldn't. He could barely hear. Everything was coming out as muffled noise. He felt tears forming in his eyes. He turned his head, this way and that, trying to figure out what was happening.

Shooting pain went up his neck and he gasped as he fell still. A hand was clutching the back of his head, forcing him to stay still. _Drink, you need to drink this! _He couldn't see. Why couldn't he see? He twisted, slapping his hands out, trying as hard as he could to get away from whatever it was that was holding him down. His hands didn't move though. They stayed at his side and instead he felt a burning pain. A pain he hadn't noticed earlier. He screamed, not really sure how he could do that when he could barely breathe, but he screamed.

Something was in his mouth, something was moving around in his mouth and sliding down his throat. He coughed, choking and gasping, he tried to move, but he couldn't. He shivered in the dark, he wanted to know what was going on. He wanted to know what was happening. What happened? The last thing he remembered was...._Kai! _Oh Kai!

He snapped his eyes open, forcing them open, he had thought they were open before. In reality they'd been glued shut. Glued or bled shut. It didn't matter. He could barely see anything, even with the improvement, but he looked at the person in front of him and he stopped any resistance he'd been doing in the first place. Kai was leaning over him, his face marred with concern and a long line of blood was dripping from his cheek. He looked exhausted and more worn then he'd ever seen him. He was holding his hand to his face and commanding him to drink whatever was in it.

His mouth fell open as he stared at the person in front of him. This was a dream. They should have been dead. Nobody could have survived what they'd just been through. He felt his throat constrict. Oh god. They were dead! Everyone was dead! He gasped, his body shuddering heavily as he thought about that.

_Stay with me! You need to stay with me! Drink this, calm down. Calm down! _Everything was running in slow motion. The words were in his head, but Kai's mouth was moving so slowly and so brokenly that he wasn't sure he heard them. They were comforting though. They were comforting and he felt himself go limp. Limp in his friend's hold as he struggled to get him to swallow some of the water.

Fire filled his mind. Tears were slipping from his cheeks. Tears he couldn't afford to lose. He was already dehydrated. Only one or two drops fell from his eyes before his body couldn't possibly make any more to sustain him. He could still see everything happening. The fire, the screams, the yelling, the panicked look on the face of the young man next to him.

The two had shared a horrified glance before they had held onto each other, hoping and praying that somehow they'd make it out of everything. Well, they had, but they were clearly not doing so well. He felt his body going through so much pain and torment that he would have preferred to be back on Boris' three. The bar that was three inches off the ground that he would hold on to while Boris flayed his flesh in his madness. Yes...he'd rather be on the three then he would where he was now.

He could feel the burns on his body. The horrible burns that was proof that he didn't make it completely out of the blaze. The blazing inferno that they shouldn't have survived. There was no way. The fall, the decent, the crash. They should have been smoldering pieces of ash, not laying there – wherever there was – to lick their wounds...or the water that Kai was desperately trying to get into his mouth.

His tongue touched the water lightly, soaking it up and lapping at the cupped hand as it was offering him his much needed drink. He didn't question how it got there, he just knew that he needed it. Needed it because he was going to die if he didn't. He was smart enough to know that he wasn't going to go anywhere for a long while if he didn't put something into his body.

_Eat this...you won't like it...but it'll help..._He felt Kai push something into his mouth, his tongue nudged wearily against it and it pulled back. Revolted and disgusted he wanted to throw up. He twisted, trying to spit it out. _Damn it, just eat it! _

"C-can't!" he gasped. He couldn't eat it. He couldn't, his throat was closing, his breath alluded him, his eyes bulged. He couldn't do it. He couldn't eat that. Whatever _that _was. He sniffled, he already proved he couldn't cry, but he sniffed anyway. Why couldn't he just catch a break!?

He felt his mouth get pried open, whatever it was was pulled from it and he silently prayed that everything would just be over. He almost wanted to die now, he didn't know if he could stay awake much longer if it meant that he would have to deal with this. He wanted to just curl into a ball – scratch that, moving his legs hurt far to much for that – he wanted to just die. Death meant a lack of pain. He was an alright person, he saved the world after all, surely that meant he wouldn't get sent below. Oh but if he did...wasn't this going to be better then dying? He groaned.

_Don't you dare make fun of me for this later._ He heard his name after that. He blinked up at Kai. He wanted to know what the other was planning. Then suddenly Kai's lips were on his and that disgusting thing was back in his mouth. It was chewed up though, practically put into such tiny pieces that when Kai's tongue shoved it into his throat he was able to swallow it. He weakly accepted it – knowing that his companion had done what he'd done out of desperation to get him to eat whatever it was he had eaten. There was no way Kai would ever have done something like that unless that was the reason.

He stared blearily at the young man. Why wasn't he burnt too? He was just cut up and looked so very tired...oh right...fire can't hurt a _child_ of fire. Kai was safe in the flame as long as Dranzer was there to protect him. Unlike him, who had no safety at all when it came to the flames that had dared to overcome him.

"W-w-what..."

_Nothing. You don't want to know...trust me. You have shrapnel in your legs...I need to take it out..._ He tried to glance at them, but he couldn't. His head was looking the wrong way, and Kai was making no effort to help him look the right way. He tried to move, but the other gripped him harder and refused to let him. _Stop it. You're going to hurt yourself. Wait for that to kick in..._

For what to kick in? What had he eaten? What was going on!? How were they even alive?! He looked passed Kai's shoulder, everything was a blur. He couldn't see anything. He groaned, tried to move again, but was once more held still. His body ached. He felt his fingers twitching uncontrollably. There was something gooey on his ear. Blood? He didn't know.

"What ha-ha-happen-"

_We didn't quite make it to the airstrip._ Was the dry response. He felt his eyes slip closed as he leaned into his friend's hold. He needed to keep himself breathing. Clearly Kai had a better grip on everything and he was able to handle it all, his job therefore was to keep breathing. Strangely enough...that took a lot of effort. _How much can you remember? _Wasn't he told to not talk? He didn't remember....he could have sworn Kai didn't want him doing anything. Especially talking. Then again...that could have been on the plane when Kai had leaned into his ear as he'd held him close. He'd told him not to say anything...not to break his concentration...

Oh god, he'd screamed. He'd screamed when the plane was coming down, he'd felt the shock and there was nothing that Kai could have done to stop that. He'd felt his body crash against the ground as something warm was holding him to tight. He felt fire errupting all around him.

He gasped, struggling to get away from the hold. He needed to get free. There was a baby a baby in the back. He had to save it. He had too!

_STOP. You've got a metal shard in your back. If you keep moving you'll hit your spine. It's to close for me to pull out here..._

That would explain why Kai was holding him up the way he was...since when had that happened? He'd always thought he'd been on the ground. He groaned, he didn't know what to do, he felt so lost, so useless. He didn't like being helpless. He didn't like not being able to move even in the slightest.

"S-Sacha..." The arms around him hesitated only for a moment, but then a moment later they were wrapped around him in the most comforting embrace he could have ever asked for in that moment. His body was still hurting terribly and he was in such an intense amount of pain, but he didn't care. He was being held and he felt safe in these arms at that moment and there was nothing that anyone could do to deny him that.

"I'm here." For the first time he felt like he'd actually heard those words, like his ears had finally picked up on them. He raised his hands, ignoring the pain in his arms as he did so, and gripped his friend's jacket as it was laying in front of his face. "I'm here...shhh..." Kai was rocking him back and forth, trying to get him to calm down. He knew it as much as he did that the rocking wouldn't do anything really. It was just Kai's way of handling everything.

Kai did it because he needed to do it. He did it because he needed to have someway to tell his utterly broken friend that everything was going to be alright, and that they were going to be fine. _He _didn't believe Kai for a moment. He knew that the chances were they were going to die. He was going to die. Kai wasn't burnt to a crisp. Kai wasn't even all that badly off. He was just cut to shred and terribly weak. He'd used up to much energy trying to ward off the flames from the both of them. It had to have been the both of them, if it wasn't, then _he _would be dead, and Kai would be sitting there by himself, cradling a broken body.

"Don't...go..." he felt his eyes slipping closed. He knew that this was going to be the end for his awareness right now. Kai gripped him closer, his head buried in his neck. He heard the mumbled reply that he wouldn't be left alone, and then suddenly, he was gone. He fell into darkness, and that was that.

Kai held him for another half an hour, holding him so close and so tight that he was almost gripping onto him to make sure that he knew that the life in his arms was never going to be destroyed. He took a shuddering breath in and he closed his eyes. He needed to feel as though everything was going to be okay, but he knew that it wasn't. Kai looked up from the body of his friend. It was still breathing and its heart was still beating, but that was the only upside.

The legs that had shrapnel in them were both sporting two large spikes of the seats that had been in front of them. They had dug into the very bones of the young man's legs, and it would be a miracle if he ever walked again. His legs were burnt terribly, his hands were practically missing all of their skin, and his back was stabbed with some asshole's suitcase pole that had snapped off as they'd made their escape and had stabbed him straight through.

As it stood, the young man in his arms was most likely going to die. If not now, then very soon. He needed medical attention, and until he got it he was going to slowly waste away into nothingness. Kai looked up at his phoenix who was watching over them both. Her wing was bleeding from where she'd bitten it. She'd torn off a whole section of her wing and practically ordered her master to eat it and give some to his companion. The flesh of a phoenix had enough healing power to keep them both alive...even if it was barely enough. As long as they had that in their bodies they wouldn't die.

"Get back in your blade...you need to heal...please Dranzer....I can't be worried about you dying on me too." Kai whispered softly as he cradled his broken friend in his arms. Everything was going to hell so quickly, and he hated it so much. The bird nodded, knowing that she needed to leave, and did so albeit grudgingly. She didn't want to leave even if she knew she had to.

The two had been on a plane home from South Africa. They had business they'd needed to deal with at their department down there. They had been on the flight for hours when there had been an explosion. Kai remembered seeing his friend waking from a fitful sleep he'd so desperately needed. He hadn't slept in days, worrying constantly over something or other. He'd needed something to distract him, and this was what he'd gotten. It had been the first time he'd gotten any sleep since...well since everything had fallen apart in his life.

He'd needed rest. He'd needed it, and Kai had actually slipped a slipping pill into his water to make him sleep. It had been a true testament about just how exhausted the young man was that he'd sipped at the drug until he'd imbibed it all without even noticing. Or perhaps he had noticed but had known that he'd needed to sleep and so had gone through with the intoxication. Kai had promised to look out for him while he was resting.

Well, now that the resting part was clearly interrupted, Kai would never forget the way those groggy blue eyes turned to him, filled with water and the knowledge of ages. The motor had just blown. People were panicking, trying to understand what was happening, but they didn't do anything. They sat next to each other, and looked at each other, knowing that they were going to die and that there was little they could do about it. Kai couldn't accept that.

He slipped his hand into his pocket and took off his seat belt. Even as the plane started to nose dive, he pulled his friend to him, and gripped Dranzer in his palm. His friend had pulled his own blade out of his pocket and had gripped it tightly in his hand as well. Moments had passed and then the roof was thrown off right above them. It was the combined effort that had managed to do so. Everyone was going to die anyway, screw cabin pressure.

They were low enough for it to not matter anymore anyway. Kai summoned his bird and the two of them were in the air, Kai grasping onto him as he held on fearfully. Those blue eyes never once showed any mistrust. He believed in his friend and that was all there was to it. Then the inferno started. The inferno that was the explosion of the whole plane. Kai had whispered for his friend to not distract him, but it was a vain hope. The flames gripped at his friend's body and suddenly he was screaming bloody murder. His screams wrenched at Kai's heart and even though many of them were forced away, it didn't matter. There was a slam and shrapnel went flying, the plane was entangling them as it flopped over itself and rolled on the ground, the body in his arms was eerily still as everything was colliding with each other. Everything was taking forever to end, and when it did, Kai alone was the sole person left on the crash site that was even awake to survey the damage.

It was gruesome. Dranzer held him safely in her wings, but the body in his arms had been practically mauled to death. He worked fast, the bird taking them to the nearest source of water. There the man gently lathered his friend's body in the cool liquid, hoping that that would help with the pain and the burns that were digging deeper and deeper into his skin. The unconscious person's hair was singed and practically half gone from the blaze. Kai felt tears in his eyes as he struggled to keep his friend from sustaining any more damage. He needed to keep him alive...he had to keep him alive...until they knew...they had to stay alive.

Now there they sat. There they sat and there they were. Alone in the destruction that surrounded them. The water that Kai had been taken to was a small oasis...a small little place that was now reeking with the smell of blood and fire. All around them was sand. The Sahara Desert was unforgiving and would not take kindly to them being there. They had no hope at all of staying alive if this oasis couldn't provide for them.

Kai brushed sweat from his face. The sun beat down on his unprotected skin, scorching it and making it an angry red in color. He looked down at his friend's stomach where the man had dropped his beyblade from his shaking fingers.

"Please..." His voice was barely a whisper. Despite how lucky he'd been in the fire...he was not strong enough nor safe enough to cary on the way it was. "For....him...please...please make it..." He felt dizzy, his head dipped forward and even though he'd promised he wouldn't leave his companion, he felt unconsciousness take him just as a chilling breeze filled the air.

"_WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN THERE WAS A CRASH!?"_ Bryan's frantic voice came over the phone and Spencer held it away from his ear as the voice slammed into his head. He groaned and tried to count to ten, before answering.

"The plane they were on issued a Mayday, and then there was a loss of communication over the Sahara desert..." he tried to go on, but Bryan was cursing and ranting about buying the plane company and suing them for all they were worth. The thought that their friends might not even be alive anymore hadn't crossed his mind yet. It wouldn't. That wasn't how Bryan delt with things. He needed to avoid emotional attachment to a situation. Death wasn't there until there was a body. And even if it was the body of the friend he'd known for over fifteen years, he wasn't going to consider it anything except a body.

"When is the next flight out to the area?" Bryan's voice was calm and serious. He knew what needed to be done.

"Three hours. Ian's been called, I've made the arrangements." Spencer replied softly. "Brayn...there's a good chance that-"

"I'll see you in two. I'll meet you there." There was a click and Spencer stared at his phone. He knew that at that moment there was most likely another hole in the wall in Bryan's flat. That didn't matter though...

Bryan was quite possibly the closest out of all of them to the two members of their team who had gone missing. He was their third in command on everything, the next one in charge in case there was ever an issue. Spencer was just after Bryan, and Ian was the last, but that didn't really matter. Not now. Bryan was dealing with the very real fact that two of his dearest companions were dead. He wasn't the only one though.

Spencer crushed the phone in his palm. He couldn't stand to even have it there a moment longer. He needed to breathe. He needed to breathe and he needed to do his job. He had to find and identify the bodies on that air plane. Every single passenger was to be accounted for, and then when he was done, he was going to have to write down his two best friends' names on the list of the deceased. He felt his heart burn in his chest.

He turned around and stared at the computer screen where all the information on the supposed crash were right there in front of him. Sometimes it paid to work for the ISA. Especially when two ISA agents suddenly dissapeared in the field on a plane that had over a hundred passengers on it. He closed his eyes once more, imagining the last time he'd seen his friends.

They'd been out to lunch. It had been over five months since....well since that tragedy had occurred. Tala was looking slightly better then he had when he'd first received that letter, but he didn't look at the top of his game yet. There were dark circles under his eyes and he looked much thinner then the last time that they'd seen each other. He'd been living with Kai for the past few months as far as he knew. Yet this was the first time they'd all come together as a group since that incident.

"How're you feeling?" He'd asked, the redhead glanced up at him and smiled lightly.

"Great. Never better." It was a lie and they both knew it. Spencer hadn't pressed though. Everyone started talking about the old days. Days when their lives had been a constant matter of deception and deceit so they could still survive. They had fooled so many people. So many people and they were alive.

It had been Ian who had brought up the ghost that was floating between them. He had mentioned that taboo name without thinking about it. Almost instantly the glass that Tala had been holding – shattered in his palm. He looked at it without really considering it. His face drawn and his eyes blank. He didn't appear to have thought much at all on the fact he'd just broken the dish.

"God damn flimsy glass." Kai had said as he helped pick up all the pieces and summoned a waiter. He took his brother's hand in his and started to pull glass out of the thin cut that was on his finger while the red head stared blankly at it. His mind was elsewhere. No one really could taste the meal they'd had after that.

South Africa had been Kai's idea. He'd thought it would be good to have Tala out and about, out of Russia at least. The two of them could immerse themselves on the politics of the region and there would be nothing there to remind him of....what had happened. The next time he'd spoken with the redhead had proven that Kai still knew Tala better then anyone else.

"_Hey Spence! It's Luka, look I just found this really great deal on this new launcher system that looks pretty damn cool. They've got a new configuration that's faster then the standard ones kids are running around with these days. It doesn't compare to _mine _of course, but yours-" _Spencer had cut him off by calling him an insufferable ass, and had told him to buy it for him if he liked it so much. Tala had assured him that it would be pink and covered with purple stickers of butterflies just for him, and Spencer had hung up the phone, feeling like the younger man had finally started to come out of his slump and was returning to his actually living again.

Kai would always know his brother better then anyone else. Spencer was so jealous. Though at the moment...his crushed phone in his hand and his heart worrying in his chest....he could care less if Kai knew Tala better then anyone on the planet. He could care less if his friend suddenly announced that he and Tala actually shared brain waves, all he wanted, was the very unrealistic news that the two of them were okay.

Kai wasn't feeling okay though.

He woke up with his arms still wrapped around his dearest friend and his body completely sunburnt. The only thing that saved him from becoming more burnt then he already was, was the chilling wave that was surrounding him and his companion. Tala was out like a light, but his wolf was sitting before them, panting in the heat, but exuding pure ice that was melting every few seconds. The over one hundred degree temperature did nothing for the wolf's nature, but it was helping to keep the boys from expiring in the heat.

Kai groaned, his mouth unbearably dry. The wolf moved forward, pressing her snout to his face and breathing out, sending chilling waves through his body and filling his mouth with slush that melted and made him feel more alive then he had before.

"Th-ank you." He wheezed, trying painfully to keep himself focused. He needed to stay focused. Looking down, he saw the damage once more on his friend's broken body. Tala needed a doctor...and if he didn't get one soon he was going to die. There was no way around it, he was going to die.

He clutched his brother close to him, squeezing his eyes shut as he recalled unwillingly that first day they met. All those years ago when they were just toddlers. Tala hadn't even had a name then...he'd been so small and so confused as to what was happening he'd simply howled and cried until Kai had hit him and started commanding him as though he were an animal. It had been _Kai's _job to teach Tala how to talk and what to do. Kai's job to teach him how to dress himself and how to follow instructions. It had been Kai who had essentially made sure his friend was even alive for the many years they'd spent together. It had been Kai's mother who had seen their bond when she'd gone to see her son, refused to leave without Tala too, and then took the thusly named Luka (Kai had given that to him as well) home and adopted him without a second thought. It had been Kai's grandfather who had nicknamed the boy Tala, it had been Kai's friend who had – he stopped that thought. He wouldn't think about it.

After all those years of looking after Tala, Kai couldn't bear thinking that he was going to die. Tala was by no means helpless. On a good day, the red head was probably better at the labor intensive work that they sometimes were required to do, that had come from years of sitting in an office while Tala had been running around the world on various ISA related missions.

"A..." The redhead's head tilted towards his chest, weak and dehydrated, he sounded like he was dying. He was dying. Kai held him closer. "An...na..." Kai's heart clenched. He shook his head as the confused man in his arms blinked up at him. He doubted that those blue eyes that had never been able to see right since they'd been kids had even the faintest chance of seeing his face. "An...na...you...re back..." Kai didn't have the heart to tell him that he was wrong, that Anna wasn't here. That that girl that had been with them since they'd been nine was gone. He didn't have the heart to say anything of the sort. He just let the man ramble. Wolborg chilled him as she'd done Kai, and he looked slightly better for it. "An...na...miss...ed you..."

"I know." Kai whispered. He could all to well remember the look on his brother's face when he'd appeared at Tyson's dojo. He had just shown up out of the blue, his eyes awash with terror and misery and his hands clenching the letter that told Anna and her unborn child's fate. The fate that was decided for Tala.

"Why...d...you...leave...?" Tala was completely delirious and delusional. He couldn't see, he was probably hallucinating, and he was dying. Kai did the only rational thing he could think of. He lied.

"I'm sorry...I didn't want to hurt you." He told himself that it was okay. He hadn't really lied...just made Tala think something that he hadn't meant. He had been talking about the injuries, he knew that his brother wouldn't take it that way. He was right, the man hummed slightly, and his blue eyes slipped closed, then suddenly they were wide with panic.

"No, no, y-you can't be here! The crash!" He was struggling, delirious and in such pain he didn't know what to do. Kai held him down. He couldn't lie anymore, it was going to make him get more hurt than anything else.

"Stop it, Luka, you're going to hurt yourself, the shard in your back-Anna's not here! She's gone! She and the baby are gone!" Tala froze, his mouth opened, his eyes clearing up slightly. He looked like he was actually looking at Kai now.

"What...? Sacha...?" His real name. The name his parents hat given him. Kai never went by it. Only Luka really knew it. Voltaire knew it, obviously, but he respected his grandson's wishes and didn't call him by it. Everyone else had either forgotten it over time or had respectfully never said it. Those who had never known it never bothered. It wasn't their place or their name. Usually Kai hated it when his brother called him that, but right now, just like before, he didn't care. Talking meant he was still alive, and that was good enough for Kai at the moment.

"Anna's not here...she and the baby are gone..." he repeated softly.

"Hot..." Kai nodded, and Wolborg chilled them both for good mesure.

"You're going to be okay...we're going to get out of this..." He was lying. He didn't know how they could possibly get out of this. The Sahara was huge. As the largest desert in the world, he doubted they had enough luck to have crashed on the one spot someone could be. He held his brother's dying body close to him. Their only hope was that someone came to investigate the crash soon. Though he'd already resolved that if no one came by the end of the next day, he was going to try to cross the desert on Dranzer. It was their only hope...Luka's only hope. He couldn't last much longer in such conditions, and they needed to get him to safety as soon as possible.

"Why...why did they go...Sacha...?" Kai shook his head. He didn't know. The letter had been less then helpful, and without his brother knowing about it he'd been looking into it himself. Still though, he'd found nothing. Nothing to point towards what exactly had happened to the young woman who for so many years had been captivated by his brother's kind heart. He'd hoped that by lying to him earlier it would help ease the pain on the man's soul, but it didn't help.

"Get some sleep Luka...get some rest..." The heat was bearing down on them, and he felt his body shudder despite it. Wolborg leaned closer to them, her body cooling theirs down and making them feel better in all of this heat.

And sleep the man did. His eyes fluttered closed, and in his dreams he was transported to another time and another place. Anna was standing in the kitchen, her stomach just starting to show. He walked into the room, she was cooking something that looked like soup or stew and it filled the house with such a warm homey feeling. There was even the smell of baking bread that was enticing.

He smiled and moved forwards, wrapping his arms around her as his head leaned on the crook of her neck. She tilted it towards him, leaning into his hold as she smiled contentedly. His hand traced down, touching her stomach where the unborn child was resting. He couldn't help himself. Ever since he'd found out he'd been so happy and so content. He couldn't help the feeling of awe that floated through him as he thought about how he'd helped create a life. _This _little life that was in the body of the woman he loved.

"_I'm making some chicken soup for you...how are you feeling?" _He coughed slightly as though on command, his hand going to his mouth and turning from her pretty face. He had forgotten he'd got the flu somewhere in his travels. Probably an air plane sickness. He shook his head, trying to convey that all was well.

"_Better...how about you? You still having..." _He didn't know how to word it, but at her small laugh he knew she understood.

"_Actually no, I'm feeling better today. I think I'll head down to the office and see what my runts have done to mess up my servers." _Luka shook his head and stepped back a little bit, moving to the fridge to get a drink of water.

"_They're not that bad, I stopped by yesterday before I came home to see how they were doing." _

"_Oh I'm sure they've messed it up somehow." _He looked over to her, took in her pretty face and her swelling stomach and thought she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. She had her hair tied back in a messy pony tail, and was wearing a plain sun dress with an apron, there was powder on her cheek from where she had had a baking accident, and she looked like a normal house wife with nothing special about her, but he knew differently. He knew that she was his, and that made her ten times more special then anything else.

Thunder clapped in the room, and he jumped. It had been sunny not to long ago. He looked back to the stove, it was empty, and Anna was no where to be seen. She was gone. He felt his heart stop in his chest. He ran through the house, his cold forgotten about as he tried to find her. Find her and the child that he longed to hold. He felt panic rising in his chest.

He called out to her, but she wasn't there. He screamed her name, but she never replied. He froze at the door to the bedroom. He knew what he'd find, but he couldn't bring himself to enter. He couldn't bring himself to open that door and see what was there. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and steeled himself for the sight.

He felt like he was drowning, and he screamed as he opened his eyes. Kai had let go of him at one point, and his back was shooting with pain that was unrestricted as the shard near his spine was making itself known. He yelled out unconsciously, but when he finally realized the dream had ended, he looked towards Kai and stared in growing horror.

Kai was deathly pale considering how sunburnt he was. His face was damp with sweat and he was laying on the ground with his eyes closed and his hands bent before him. He looked horrible. Tala forced the pain to the back of his head where it could be ignored and he forced himself forwards. He reached out, touched the burnt skin of his brother and felt for a pulse. It was so loose and thready. He hissed quietly to himself.

"Sacha...Sacha..." He hesitated, realizing for the first time what he'd been unconsciously calling the other. "Kai...Kai wake up." Red eyes blinked open, staring at him in confusion.

"Well...this...is a first..." He mumbled, but he was ignored.

"We can't stay here..." Tala whispered. He looked up. The sun was setting, and that was the only thing that was slightly good about this whole experience. They could finally get away from the sun beating down on them and roasting them alive. "We need to go." Yet with the sun setting that meant that the chilling freeze of the desert would soon be upon them.

It seemed better then the heat of the day, but in truth it was actually something that was terrifying. The frozen feeling would send their bodies further into shock, and it already seemed like Kai was fading just as fast as he was. They needed to get out of this desert. Clearly Wolborg could provide water for them once they left their oasis, but right now, they needed to flee. They needed to get to the nearest town, and they needed to do so immediately.

Panic was rising in his chest. He didn't know why, but he knew that there was something very wrong about everything around them. He knew that they needed to get away. They needed to escape, and now. He noticed that Wolborg had disappeared, and that clearly meant that the wolf wasn't strong enough to stay out in the sun any longer. He took a deep breath, pulling Kai up. The weak young man hissed and nodded slightly to himself as he sat. His eyes looking up at his brother's face.

"Can you move?" He asked. The other nodded slowly, though he very much doubted it. Kai shook his head slightly and dunked his hand into the water of the oasis, sipping at the cool liquid slowly before forcing Tala to do the same. After a few moments, Kai took a deep breath and struggled to push himself to his feet.

Tala seemed more lucid then he had been in almost two days. Kai hadn't wanted to tell his brother the amount of time that had lapsed. As far as Luka was concerned, it was still the same day as the crash, but it wasn't. For two agonizing days, Kai had been watching over the still and feverish form of his brother who was calling out in his dreams and haunted by the nightmares that were chasing him. He was still alive, Dranzer's blood and body in his own to make him stay at least in the land of the living, but he was holding on by just a thread.

After two horrible days, Kai had succumbed to the heat and the pain his own body had been threatening him with and he'd passed out. It pained him to think that Tala had been worrying about him, when it was Tala who was so grievously injured. Kai reached down, apologizing quietly for the pain that was bound to affect the broken body of his friend who gazed up at him so trustingly.

Indeed, getting picked up did nothing to make Tala feel any better. He yelped unconsciously, his head tilting into Kai's arm. Kai hissed slightly as he held the redhead, his own injuries making him wince in pain. He closed his eyes though, and counted to ten, his back leaning against a palm tree. He needed to focus. He needed to keep himself breathing. His knees went slightly weak though and he started to crumble, sliding down to sit on the ground once more.

"It's alright...I'm just...tired..." Kai whispered softly when Tala looked at him worriedly. He reached up, and as he did, his back twinged painfully and before he knew what was happening, he fell into darkness. His body fell limp, and Kai stared in horror at the completely still form of his dearest companion. "Luka...Luka...?" He felt his eyes grow wide with complete and total fear, he had no clue what had just occurred, all he knew was that one moment his brother was with them, the next he was gone again to the darkness.

He felt a blade suddenly at his throat, and he looked up, stunned beyond belief that someone had snuck up on him. He could hardly keep the bile in his stomach as it rose up. "Man ant?" The voice that broke through the silence of the desert and he blinked at him for a long while. It took him a moment to make the switch into Arabic. A moment that was rare considering how he usually just spoke instantaneously and without holding back. Then again, he had been trained their whole lives to be aware of everything around them. The fact that now he couldn't so much as notice a stranger, let alone a whole group of strangers that were standing very much in front of them was saying something big about his health.

"Esmee Kai." He replied softly, though his voice were died and parched._"_Hal beemkanek mosa'adati?" Kai coughed slightly, holding his brother closer to him as he watched the man warily. The man was looking at them from under the cover of the clothes that were around his head and face. It wasn't an unusual sight, but it meant that only his eyes could be seen, staring down at them. He was ignoring the sword at his throat. If the man was going to kill them he could do so without much of a fight. He knew he couldn't stand up against him – let alone his men that were right behind him. He needed to survive though, survive to get Luka to a doctor.

"Men ayna anta?" He told them simply enough. They were from Russia. That fact alone attested to their horribly sun burnt skin that was usually a very pale cream color. Russian skin burnt so badly. The man laughed at them, but he didn't care.

"My friend needs a doctor." He told them, continuing on in Arabic. He needed a doctor too, but he could wait.

"Your friend's going to die." The man told him simply enough, offering no room for doubt. Kai knew the chances of Tala surviving were slim, but he wasn't about to let that be known.

"How far is it from the next town?" He knew the chances were likely that the next town was over a hundred miles away, but he let go of the small hope that perhaps they were closer.

"Hah! Not for miles!" The man was laughing at them, his sword still lodged under Kai's chin. "I kill you now and make your death swift!" The man said simply ready to slaughter the two where they sat.

"Wait!" A young voice called over, and the man glanced backwards as a woman, it had to have been a woman, moved towards them. Her face was covered just like the rest of her, but Kai stared at her in confusion. She struck him as familiar for some reason, he just couldn't place where, and his dehydration and heat stroke was getting to him. His vision was swimming. She was speaking, but he was barely able to keep up with her, he felt his world spinning around him and he groaned as he tried to stay conscious.

The sword fell from his throat, and he felt himself get roughly pulled upwards, his weak arms barely able to keep his friend in his grasp. He hissed as his weight was set on all the wrong places and he was dragged roughly towards where the man's men were. He saw a camel, and he felt the person in his arms be eased out of his weak hands.

"It'll be alright." The words weren't spoken in arabic, but he translated them easily enough. He knew that language too...it was...he felt his head spin once more and he collapsed just as he was set on the back of the camel. He didn't feel the people strap him to the beast, nor did he feel the people strap Tala to his back. The two of them were bound together and they were set off into the desert and they had no way of knowing where they were going and if they were going to be alright.

Spencer was standing at the sight of the crash, his hands wringing themselves painfully as he looked over the metal and the burt bodies that were thrown about the desert in haphazard heaps. He felt sick to his stomach. Ian and Bryan were pulling corpses out of chairs and were comparing them to a passenger manifesto. They were putting temporary IDs on people, moving through everything until they thought they came to something that was interesting.

Spencer was standing at the most interesting thing of all though. His eyes narrowed down on the only piece of metal and plastic that hadn't been burnt into oblivious like everything else. It looked like it was peeled back with a can opener and then thrown to the wind, and it was the only piece of hope that he had left in his body.

He looked over everything else and took a deep breath. This was a piece of the ceiling of the plane...and the roof on the opposite side. It had been removed from the plane before it had crashed, and it was just big enough for two bodies to fit through. Two bodies that he knew were most likely responsible for the broken metal. He summoned his bit-beast, watching it as the great whale appeared before him.

His companions looked up from their work, staring at the bit-beast with hopes that Spencer was on to something. The blonde looked around them, but he saw nothing that could have been used to keep the two people he loved alive. So it was up to Seaborg, and he knew the whale would do its job.

"I need you to find the largest source of water within a two mile radius. Anything that Dranzer would have gone too if it meant keeping Kai and Tala alive." The whale nodded and then suddenly was gone.

"You think they were alright enough to get somewhere safe?" Ian asked as he looked at the twisted metal that was right in front of the burly blonde. The man didn't answer the youngest right away, he was trapped in his own dark thoughts.

He was doing the math. Even if somehow they got out of the plane, the resulting explosion would have been enough to burn everything away. They wouldn't have been able to escape everything. Dranzer would have kept Kai from being burnt...Tala though...Tala would have been scorched. He would have been turned into a charcoal rendition of himself and he wouldn't have been able to escape the death that was assured after that. Chances were, Kai had been the one that got Tala out of the plane...after that though...there were no garantes that Tala was even alive.

The whale was suddenly there again, pointing off into the distance, and Spencer affirmed that something was near by. Bryan summoned his own bit-beast, and Falborg provided the transportation for all three of them over the terrain. Spencer's glowing beyblade led the way through the desert, angling them in the right direction until they came to a small oasis at long last.

It was tiny, and it barely had any shade, but it was there. More importantly, Kai's jacket was there. Laying on the ground looking ripped to shreds and covered with blood, the jacket was perfect proof that somehow or other at least Kai had made it to the Oasis. If Tala wasn't with him, he was as good as dead, but Kai was somewhere...and that meant that he could very well still be alive.

But they weren't there. Kai and hopefully Tala had been there at one point, but now the oasis was empty and there was nothing. Nothing at all. Spencer bit his lip. He didn't know where to go from here. Ian was looking at the ground though, and upon careful investigation, he summoned Wyborg. The snake appeared quickly enough, and after given a few instructions, it too vanished from sight and started to make its way through the desert as it tried to follow any trail that the two might have made.

For now they just had to sit and wait for Wyborg to come back. It was the only thing they could do, and they didn't like it one bit.

Kai groaned loudly as he opened his eyes. He was lying on his back, and he gasped as he looked about him. Rough hands pushed him back onto the ground, and he realized he was in a tent and lying on a rug of sorts. Beside him was Tala, sleeping blissfully unaware of everything. He looked at the person who had shoved him, the woman from earlier.

"Who are you?" He whispered in her supposed native language. The arabic felt dead in his mouth, and he couldn't figure out why. He knew he'd said it right, and that his accent had been impeccable, but he couldn't ignore the fact that there was something off about this whole experience.

"My name is none of your concern. Your friend is very weak. He may not last the night. His burns are very bad." She replied softly with a touch of command in her voice. It was clear she wasn't to be talked down to, and that made it all the stranger as it was something that he was unused to dealing with in their culture.

"How bad?" He himself knew the damage, but he didn't know the medical end of it. He knew that Tala was dying, but he didn't know how soon or if it could be stopped.

"Bad enough. I have put some salve on his burns, they should start healing hopefully. If they do not though, and infection sets as I fear it has already begun to do so, you would be wise to allow the end of his life. He will not make it."

"You saved our lives just to kill us?" Kai hissed incredulously. She glowered at him.

"I saved your lives to see if you could be saved. You are useful to us for our own purposes. I assume you are from good money?" She asked as she motioned knowingly towards his stained blue face. He knew those marks were recognizable almost anywhere on the planet, and he wondered faintly how much of them were still there. It would be unbelievable if they actually looked the way they were supposed to after all he'd been through the past few days.

"I have money. Yes. Him too. Him more then me." She laughed at him, and he knew that the lie was obvious. He was one of the richest people in the world, of course Tala wouldn't have more money then him, though he was entitled to almost as much of as he was.

"Your friend won't survive if his infection sets. You will be sold in two weeks time in the underground markets...there you may hope to buy your freedom, but my guess is that you won't last even a day there." She stood up and made to leave, but he caught her wrist.

"Don't sell us...I will pay you whatever it is that you need, more then what they could offer you, just keep him alive and don't sell us and you will be compensated." She turned to look at him, something flashing in her eyes. Whatever she was going to say though was cut off.

"Anna..." Tala was whispering in his sleep again, his delirium clear. She froze slightly as she looked at him, her eyes wide. Kai was staring at him and didn't notice the change in his captor, but it was obvious. She had gone rigid and even her skin looked pale though there was only a small bit of it showing.

"Shh...Luka...its alright." Kai reached out and touched his brother's face, trying to keep the nightmares at bay.

"Don't....go..." Pale fingers by passed Kai and caught the woman's hidden hand and she stared at him for a long while as blue eyes looked unflinchingly towards her. The two of them took each other in, and Kai frowned as he noticed Tala's confusion.

"No brother, she's not-"

"Anna..."

"Release me." The woman hissed, her voice dark and tense. The pale fingers flinched in shock and did let go of her. Hazy blue eyes stared at her, tears seemingly forming in his glass eyes.

"Tala that's not Anna...Anna was pregnant...she's not pregnant." True enough, the woman was certainly not pregnant, there was not even the trace of a baby bump. Yet that only made Tala's face pale even more, his breath coming in short gasps, he looked like he was on the verge of hyperventilating. Tears fell from his eyes, his head tossed to the side, ripping them off of the woman before him as he choked back a sob. Kai recoiled, not sure what had just happened, but his brother's grief and horror was enough to make him try _anything _to have him calm down. He pulled the hurting man to his chest, struggling to keep his own self in check. His hands gripped the other's back, and he stopped, realizing for the first time that the long jagged shard had been removed and that his back had been carefully bandaged.

He looked up at the woman thankfully, but she was gone. She had left and they were alone. He was happy for it too, because he didn't want his brother's pain to be broadcasted all over the world. He didn't want anyone to see his brother in such a state of horrible sadness.

The nameless woman was walking through the encampment, her eyes scanning the horizon for something that she didn't think she'd see. She was looking for any signs of them being followed, as though she knew that they inevitably would be. The people around her assured her that there was no chance that they could possibly be followed, and yet she was certain beyond the shadow of a doubt that someone out there was chasing them.

There. Off in the distance it was just a glimmer, but she knew what it was without question. She moved forward, into the night and into the darkness. She walked quickly and soundlessly, knowing that there was a good chance that she could be followed herself at any moment. The glimmer appeared, closer this time, and she waited for a brief moment before it was upon her.

She held out her hand, and suddenly it was there, pressing up against her hand and looking at her with eyes that knew exactly who she was. She didn't have time for this. The snake was on the hunt, and it wasn't for her. Though she knew it would undoubtedly tell about them meeting. She pulled something from her pocket. A strip of the clothing that Tala had been wearing. It was stained in his blood, but it was still obvious what it was.

"Tell them they're here...tell them that they will need to prepare for a fight. Those two are to be sold as slaves if they do not cooperate. I have no allusions that they wont realize soon enough what type of men these people are. They wont cooperate after that. L-_Tala _is very ill. He'll die soon if they don't come quickly. Kai is faring little better. He's sick with heatstroke and he's concussed, I don't know how bad. Hurry, I'll look after them until you arrive, then make sure that you can escape." The snake pushed his head against her hand meaningfully. "I won't be going with you. I'm sorry." She turned and left, the snake staring after her for only a brief moment before dissapearing and going back the way it came.

Tala was shaking heavily, his head spinning and a fever gripping him. Kai held onto him through it all, knowing that the moment someone saw that infection had in fact set in, and that Tala was walking swiftly towards death's door, they were going to be separated forever. He himself was feeling little better. He was nauseous and he was uncomfortably dizzy. His world kept spinning around him, but he refused to do anything except sit there and keep a hold on his shivering brother.

"Shh....it's alright..." He whispered softly, the russian falling from his lips as he gently rocked the young man to his chest. He hummed lightly, trying anything to calm him. He barely even looked up when the woman returned and started to place a wet cloth on Tala's burning forehead.

Blue eyes hazily looked at her, or through her. He whispered the name of his lost lover, but the woman didn't react this time. She didn't say anything. She just continued dabbing his forehead and looking for ways that could bring the fever down.

"Don't kill him." Kai whispered, his head all but lolling downwards. He was struggling to stay upright, and he was sounding more and more delirious as time went by. She looked at him with blank eyes, but concern was obvious on her features. Despite what she'd said earlier, she clearly didn't want either of them to be in the rather perilous states they were in. "Please..." Never before had Kai Hiwatari ever begged for anything, but now he was doing so. He was doing so because he knew he had nothing left. Physically he could not defend his brother should the worst happen.

Wolborg and Dranzer would, at best, serve as a distraction. They couldn't possibly stay out and protect them forever. Eventually they would fade when they had no energy, and then the two men would be at the mercy of these bandits. The woman was looking at him sternly. She knew it as much as he did. He knew that they were at the end of their luck. They were finally about to be killed.

"I will not kill him. Not until he is to far gone." She didn't add that that meant when the two of them were prepared to be sold into the life she was now in. She would kill them both herself before they were forced to live in the same conditions that she was now enduring. She wouldn't allow them to do that. She wouldn't. Couldn't. She refused. Once they realized what was happening around them, that she had lied earlier when she'd said that there was a chance they could buy their freedom, and that they were both being prepared to become slaves to the group she was working for, they were going to react badly, and when there was no hope left, she would end their lives. "Get some rest...you do your body no good to stay up like this." He pitched forward suddenly and she caught up, forcing him to lay back down as she shook her head at his stubborness. His arms were still wrapped around his brother.

She gently pulled Tala free from his grasp, his fevered hands holding onto her weakly. She looked down at him, and he stared unflinchingly up at her. Fever or no, he would always be able to find her, even in the darkest of nights. She glanced at the door of the tent to make sure no one was there, and then leaned closer as he whispered the name of that woman once more.

"Anna..."

"Shh...look what a mess your in, you'll never learn to do things the easy way will you?" She whispered softly as she ran her hand through his sweat soaked hair.

"Anna..." He pulled the cloth from her face away, revealing the pretty features he had ingrained in his heart. She was speaking in soft russian, for his benefit more then her own. She clearly understood Arabic, as did he, but that wasn't the point. He was sick, and Russian would always be the easist for him to understand.

"Rest love, you need to rest, if you don't you're just going to get sicker and sicker." She held his hand in hers as she stroked his red hair.

"Why...d'you go?" He asked brokenly, leaning into her touch.

"I'm sorry...I had no choice..." She told him honestly. She gently touched his burning cheek.

"The baby..." She froze in her caring gestures. She didn't know what to say or what to do. She looked at him with such a guarded expression that she knew she had to say something. He winced though, his hands wrenching from hers as he struggled to grip the burning pain that was shooting through his body. He gasped, curling in on his self and aggravating his back more by the action.

"Stop that!" She pushed him onto the ground, forcing him to lay still. "Listen to me...you're going to get out of here. You're going to be alright. You're going to get out of here and you're going to go home. You're not going to come looking for me or worry about me anymore alright? I'm okay. I'm going to be okay. You need to listen to me, please, just stay where you're safe and don't do anything stupid again okay?" He blinked at her, clearly not fully understanding what she was saying, but it didn't matter. A moment later she'd pressed down on a pressure point on his neck and he fell into a dead faint.

Screams echoed around them all and she looked up just as she fixed the cloth over her face. She pulled Kai closer to Tala, making sure the two of them were obviously displayed before the entrance of the tent. She only had to wait. She knew that soon they would be found. The screams intensified and there were several shots of fire arms. She ignored them all and just waited.

She waited for what seemed like hours, and then suddenly the flap at the entrance of the tent was thrown open and there Bryan stood, his face dark with concentration as he looked at the woman in front of him that was sitting behind his two best friends. Without even blinking he raised his gun and shot her. She fell to the ground beside the two, and she knew no more.

Bryan hurried forward, quickly looking at the damage that was displayed on the two he considered brothers. He shook Kai awake. His red eyes staring up at him in confusion as he tried to figure out just what had happened. Bryan let out a sigh of relief.

"Can you stand?" He asked softly, and Kai nodded slowly.

"I doubt I could walk far." He replied as Bryan helped up to sit up. He was kneeling and he watched as Bryan slowly checked his brother over for any injuries. "His neck and spine are alright, his back is pretty fucked, but his spine is okay, we can move him while he's out." Kai murmured and Bryan nodded, quickly pulling the younger man onto his back and positioning him so he could stand up while turning to Kai and helping him to his feet.

The three slowly made their way towards the tent were Falborg was waiting for them. The falcon cawed happily, and Kai murmured that Dranzer could take him. Bryan nodded and moved to sit on his bitbeast, holding Tala close while Kai summoned his own. Then, they flew off into the night.

Spencer and Ian met up with them later, and they managed to get to Cairo after not to long of a wait. The doctors looked over Kai and Tala with grim faces, but they were satisfied enough as the days passed and the two were still alive.

Tala went in and out of fits of delirium, and he called out for Anna throughout it all. Nobody said anything and they all tried to calm him while he was hallucinating, but eventually he was just placed into a sedative induced sleep so that he could recuperate safely enough.

His legs would heal with time. The only damage would be scars that ran up and down them. The rest of his body would be alright too. His fever was brought down and his back was carefully worked on to make sure that he had no damage left that could affect his spine in any way.

Through it all the four others waited. They waited to see what would happen and they waited to make sure that he was going to be alright. After a while though, Tala was awake and aware at long last of his surroundings. He seemed to finally be able to grab onto reality and hold onto it. He was finally able to get his feet on the ground and figure out just what was happening around him.

"We were getting worried about you little brother." Kai told him simply as he moved into the room and took a seat on the young man's bed. Tala scowled at him, running his hand through his hair.

"I'm sure you were, how long have I been out?"

"A couple of weeks. You feel any better?"

"Yeah, now I feel like I was only half cooked instead of fried like a potato."

"A potato?"

"Shut up, I'm still working on getting the come back part of my brain to respond."

"Oh I'm sure." Kai paused for a moment, and Tala took that as his que to ask the one question that had been on his mind for the past few hours since he'd been awake.

"Where's Anna?" He asked slowly, hoping beyond hope that he hadn't imagined that part of his experience. Kai looked at him sadly, knowing he'd have to break his friend's heart all over again.

"She wasn't there...you were..."

"Hallucinating?" Tala supplied easily enough, seeming to have known that that was the outcome in which he'd been fated. Kai simply stared at him. He didn't want to affirm or deny anything. The redhead sighed. "I could have sworn...she was talking to me. She touched my face."

"I'm sorry." Kai told him sincerely, but Tala waved him off.

"It doesn't matter. She wouldn't be here anyway would she? Of all the places in the world to go to raise-" He froze. His mouth fell open, his eyes wide as though he realized something important.

"Luka?"

"She had an abortion..." He whispered. All he could see was the fake Anna in his mind that never answered him when he'd asked about the child. She'd knocked him out instead. The fake Anna wasn't even pregnant. She'd looked just as she'd looked before she'd found out.

"Anna didn't have an abortion Luka, you know her! She would never have done that. She wanted that child more then anything else in the world."

"Then why wasn't she pregnant?!" He hissed furiously.

"Luka, she wasn't real! She was fake! She was a part of your life for so long that your mind conjured her in your head when you needed to have her with you. She wasn't there!" Tala felt like he'd been slapped. He'd seen her, he was sure he'd seen her. He'd seen her and he'd touched her. He'd pulled off that mask that she'd been hiding under.

"She was the woman that saved our lives Kai. She was the woman that told you we were going to be sold." Kai didn't say anything, he just looked at his brother quietly. "God, if you don't believe me then you could at least say I'm crazy or something. Let's track her down, we could find her easily enough. Wyborg could do it."

"Bryan shot her." Tala felt like he'd been slapped in the face.

"Excuse me?"

"The woman that was with us...Bryan shot her. She's dead." Kai told him as calmly as he could, but at that moment he was feeling anything but calm. If Bryan had shot that woman...and she really was Anna...then they were in for such heart break.

"No. We need to go back there. Now." Luka was getting out of bed. He refused to believe that Anna was dead. Kai didn't even try to argue the fact that Luka needed to stay in bed. He simply summoned Dranzer and helped his brother onto the bird's back with him.

The two left through the window and they stayed in the air for the rest of the night. They flew for hours, not bothering to talk or to stop or to do anything except for fly towards where their battle had taken place.

They saw the sight of the canopies off in the distance, and they slowly swooped down to the desolate area that was covered in a foot of fresh sand. Kai slowly yet surely helped Tala towards the tent they'd both been lying in only weeks before, and they crawled inside of it carefully enough. The body of the woman who'd been caring for them was not there. It was gone. Blood splattered on everything, but she herself was gone. Tala pulled one of the blood stained cloths up and he looked at Kai. They would find out everything they needed to know from this.

The days passed. The nights passed. Eventually, Tala's legs grew strong enough to hold him upright without any assistance. Kai no longer stood by his side every minute of the day to make sure that he was okay. And as the sun went down on the last day of that year....the news came out.

"Was it hers?"

"Yes." Kai told him honestly. Tala could only stare. Bryan breathed in sharply, he felt his heart breaking in his chest. He'd shot her...and if she'd been pregnant...even if she'd survived the baby was dead. Tala stared at Kai for what seemed like endless minutes.

It felt like an eternity had passed before he finally nodded and stood up. He walked towards the window and he looked out it, thinking about everything and nothing. Tala sighed heavily and shook his head.

"Then she's still alive." And he still had hope. Turning away from the window, and turning away from everything that had happened, he believed in that one solitary truth. Anna had been there, she'd made sure they were alive, she'd saved them when that man had been ready to kill them both, and for whatever reason, she'd stayed behind. It didn't matter the circumstances, Anna wouldn't have died for nothing. She was still out there, and there was still hope in finding her.

The darkest days and the darkest nights could follow from this point onwards, but from what he could tell, even in all that darkness there was always a light to be found. He knew that there was a possibility that he could die at any moment. That someday soon he most likely _would _die. Yet he knew also that there was an even greater possibility that before he died, he once again would be able to see the face of that one person he was always looking out for.

Her words echoed through his ears and he closed his eyes and breathed in the phantom scent of the woman that he cared for. He still had hope that one day she could be with him, and even if they were torn apart by everything, and even if they only met next in heaven, then he could deal with that.

The truth was, everyone in the world died. Everyone was brought in at the end to that true fate. There was no escaping it. Even if he never saw her again, something that he believed would not be the case, he knew that as long as he had hope then he had a will to live. He could fight each day with the thought in mind that he would be able to do something, to see something, that he wasn't able to see before.

Life had a funny way of never stopping when it was supposed to, of cutting things off before their time. It was a continuous circle that went on and on forever until the threads of time finally cut short. Like an endless dance, one day the dancer would fall. They would find themselves with the inability to keep going onwards, and when that came, they would fade away into the dark.

To hold onto that life, that was something precious. Tala truly felt that the life he was holding on to though, wasn't his own. It was Anna's. It was Kai's and Bryan's and Spencer's and Ian's. Those lives that he never wanted to see end, he held onto them because it was them who would teach him how to love. Anna's loss meant that he loved the others all the more. He cherished each and every day that he spent with them, because if and when life finally took a turn for the worse and death came, if and when a plane suddenly decided to crash and fall out of the sky and escape wasn't possible, he knew he cherished and loved every moment he had with the people around him.

And it was with that thought in mind, that Tala closed his eyes and breathed out. He turned back to his friends, and smiled at them. He motioned towards the clock. They needed to be at work in less then half an hour. "It's time to go."

**The End**

**Windstar:** This fic is something that I couldn't help but write. I didn't want to write anything for this series until after _On the Three _was completed, but I wasn't able to resist. If you never read it, _On the Three _is the story that takes place during, before, and after the first season championships. It is about the lives of the Demolition Boys as they get ready to throw their matches to the Blade Breakers. It has two story lines that run concurrently: the past and the present. While scenes from the past play out, the teams of the world have various reactions on it and there are several things happening in present day. It's rather lengthy now, and its not done yet!

This wasn't even supposed to be written until after _On the Three _was completed, but I couldn't help myself apparently. I hope you all enjoyed this and have a good day!

**Disclaimer: **I hold no rights to anything except for Anna and this plot, everything else belongs to those who originally created Beyblade.


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